The Department of Justice said today that an Alabama businessman was sentenced to 27 months in prison in a fraud case involving a defense contract.

William C. Childree of Enterprise, owner of Maverick Aviation Inc. also was fined $61,100 after being convicted in December in Montgomery federal court on corruption charges.

Jeffrey Stayton of Spotsylvania, Va., former chief of the aviation division for the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, was sentenced to 63 months in the same case, the agency said.

DOJ says Stayton took actions that favored Maverick's selection as the recipient of a $4.7 million contract for two helicopters in 2001. It said Childree used contract funds to pay off the mortgage on his Enterprise home and secretly wired a third party $61,100 to cover the mortgage on Stayton's personal residence. 